Running from the Cold

January 2 - 5, 2017

After a scary storm at the lake (semis were blown over closer to Fort Worth) and a look at the weather forecast I decided it was time to head south.  We had had several days of 15 degree nights while in Fort Worth and it isn't any fun at all. And we were plugged in.  Even with the electric heater I used 1/2 a tank of propane running the furnace to try to keep everything from freezing.  It didn't work and the water heater froze but thawed with no leaks so it's all good.

The cats were done with the lake after all the wind and rain.

Ever hopeful we headed towards Waco.  My only plan was 'go south.  avoid cities' which makes planning pretty easy.  Mostly it was a series of small town Walmarts but not bad.  The cold weather caught us a bit south of Austin and we shivered through a couple of freezing nights.  Still happy I didn't have any leaks, I turned on the water pump to do some dishes and suddenly wasn't happy anymore.  No water came out.  Actually water did come out but it came out underneath the camper.  Not good.

I spent some time thinking about what to do while driving to Victoria.  Victoria is big enough to have hardware stores and an RV repair shop.  Rather than give up and drive to a repair place I decided to try and figure it out.

Only leaks when the water pump is run. Dry under the sink - not the pump.  Follow the lines.  Under the sink all looks good, check the next compartment.  Yeah, that one is wet.  We start here.

The lines were all covered with insulating wrap so I pulled that off to check them.  Turns out they are all carefully labeled.  Damn.  Always buy an RV from a compulsive person.  Started feeling the lines from the wall that connects to the sink and kept going until I discovered that one corner had popped out of its connector.

That's it.  No cracks, just a Herculean effort required to get the hose back into the corner connector.  I couldn't get it in perfectly and I wonder if the previous owner couldn't either and that's why it separated.  

I patted the area as dry as I could and stuffed a bucket of drying crystals into the compartment.  I also tossed out about 15 pounds of wood pieces that had been used for leveling.

While in the big city I hoofed it to Home Depot to get some weather stripping.  The door is a little warped and I can see daylight through the bottom when it's closed.  Actually the door is irrelevant because of the frig:

Remember this picture?  That's daylight coming in through the vents that were needed for the propane frig.  The one that fit completely into the space and sealed off all the drafts.  Now it's like a wind tunnel When the wind is from that side.  I'll need to do something about this at some point.